Month: October 2013

First let me say Thank You to all of you guys that have been reading! You have no idea how much I appreciate all the comments and feedback from FB, Twitter and here. And, I saw this morning that I have gained a couple more followers, and that is so flattering! Thanks guys!

Hey All,

Well, holy moly what an insane couple of days around this house!!

With Halloween tomorrow, the girls are all a chatter about dressing up twice tomorrow, for school then trick o’treating at night. I am as well! I love Halloween. Though, I will also be slightly bummed, too. Every year my family and friend crew go out from a central meeting point for Halloween night. We had been that point for a handful of years, just missing it one year when we had the power outage and the town changed the date. But, as we are knee-deep in the reconstruction phase right now, we are all jammed into this living room space, so not much room to entertain. Then with my sister and sister-in-law having little ones, this year we will be a smaller group going out from our house to the neighborhood. It’ll be a bummer for sure, cause I now have to figure out how to celebrate this with them and get pictures!

Only good thing is .. It’s supposed to be in the 50’s tomorrow night, which means NO GLOVES AND HEAVY COATS!! lol

So about the house. The biggest changes, noticeable aside from the gutting of the space, are the construction of the pocket door for the TV/playroom, that rickety back door was converted to a wall for our laundry closet, and that entryway into the kitchen was framed into a wall. The unnoticeable things are all the joists and ceiling work that has been going on every day.

Lots of fun every night when we venture to ‘the other side’ to check out all their hard work, though. The construction crew has been working full on 6 days a week! SIX! From sun up to sun down. The electrician was over on Saturday till almost 8PM and last night was around till 6:30PM!! YOW$A! But he is really working hard to get the house up to proper code since it was a disaster before. All the guys are working intensely hard all day. And the most amazing part of it all is that they are always sweeping, vacuuming and keeping it neat throughout! At the end of the day you can walk over without much worry…it is a good thing. 🙂

The coolest thing happened over the weekend.. we found a few vintage items left in the walls from homeowners past. It was awesome! In the ceiling of the bathroom, I found an interesting orangey newspaper clipping from 1945 poking through the insulation. A newspaper out of California, that was all about livestock auctions. Weird and random. Then the crew found a few vintage Christmas cards from folks out of Lawrence from 1946 addressed to the residents here with just the street name, no number, and along with those was an invoice to Cedardale, in Haverhill, for tennis lessons from 1979; both to different people and all stuffed in the dining room ceiling between beams.

This got me thinking. Of course it did!

We were planning to put a 2013 penny in the wall, as a token to say we were here and what year it was when the walls were opened up, BUT, then when I saw this stuff, I thought, why not make up a little snapshot of what year it is and what we’re doing to the space with a blurb about the family on paper then tuck it into the ceiling or walls. Like a hello we used to live here kind of thing; add to the tapestry of its past…?

I know I would’ve loved to have a better sense of who lived there, what it looked like and what they changed.

That is it for now! There is a whole mess of noise right by my ears of saws, wet/dry vacs and singing.. 🙂

I was real lucky to have the opportunity to go to Game 1 of the World Series 2013. As you know, the Red Sox slaughtered the Cardinals, which was an amazing way to start off the series, and will be a great way to end it tomorrow night at Game 6.

Below are some fun shots we took around Fenway Park. There is a teeny tiny chance I am going to make an appearance at Game 6, a tiny one. I am not a fan of the cold and my Mom may not be able to take the girls for me, but Imma Prayin!!!!

PreGame – my husband out on Yawkey Way working. SEEMIKEDRAW.COM!A cute pic watching my man draw!Before ticketed patrons started filling the stadium, we ran around getting some fun pictures.What a beautiful sign! Am I right?Look at all the MEDIA!!So beautiful.The media was just insanity all night.The woman did a crappy job taking this picture for us, she didn’t get the WS sign!! Juggernaut!The Prudential in the background..all lit up for the game!Up in the nosebleeds.I was given this sign..i took it. for my kids. hahaYou know this woman.. who doesn’t!? She is so tiny in person I had to bend a little bit!!On our way out we bumped into Wally.. this is blurry I know, but it’s still cute!A cute Italian Red Sox tee I need for my Dad.So many kids were following these clever footprints.

What a fun craft to do with your kids.
I snagged this pumpkin craft off of pinterest, as it seemed easy to do with the girls and a lot of fun; as I love making a mess! The one thing I switched out was the faux pumpkin for the real ones we already had from our trip to the farm last weekend.

All you need is a pumpkin, some glue, crayons and a hair dryer!The color combinations are endless..I thought to sprinkle glitter on them as they dried, but the house is packed up and couldn’t find the craft box!! Arg! If you try that message me the pic!!

I chose to make a white pumpkin with black/grey/white crayons. Here is the pumpkin after cleaned with a dry cloth. Make sure to cover your work area and place the pumpkin on either a paper plate or more table covering as the max can splatter.You’ll need crayons with their paper wrappers removed then cut in half. Glue crayon halves around the top of the pumpkin. I found it easy to place the crayons on the ribbing of the pumpkins to keep them from sliding around. (glue is craft glue)Place the hair dryer over the crayons set on LOW SPEED with HIGH HEAT setting. If you put it on high speed then the wax sprays all over as it melts.The crayons take about 30 seconds or so to start ‘sweating’, begin the process of melting, then within a minute of heat they will drip and pool around the stem.Let dry once all the crayons are melted. Finished Pumpkin!A shot of my baby girl’s colorful pumpkin.A shot of my big girl’s green pumpkin! This is what the crayons look like as they start to melt. It’s real neat to see.All our pumpkins set up on the porch!

I am working at the kitchen table, which is in the living room against the plastic sheet barrier protecting this part of the house from the debris. As I am clicking away on this laptop, I am listening to the construction crew arguing over something in Portuguese. It’s very entertaining, especially when I understand a word or two. At the moment, despite the arguing in the other room, the renovations project is smooth sailing. The entire kitchen, dining and bathroom area are all stripped to the studs-walls are gone, doorways are created and old electrical is being dealt with. It’s amazing over there. The part of the house we are coining as “the other side”.

This is the part of renovations I was looking forward to most, well the finished product obviously, but I love this part. Where you can see the skeleton of the original home; where doors and windows, at various times, used to be. The old flooring and all the secrets of the house come to life. We can see that there was a major fire at some point before, and that they had switched around doors and windows. The area that is under construction is the original part of the house, which is from 1900. I am so intrigued about this home’s history that I just have to get off my fat butt and make the trip to the historical society to find out about it like I keep saying I will do someday. ha

I am feeling less and less nervous about this project as we get into the thick of it. Which is a major relief. It may be due to the fact that there is no turning back now..?..or that I can visualize it better (I’m more of a visual person; so to see it from specs to reality is a big deal).

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Another quick update I am sharing is my weight!

Last post I had shared I lost 1 lb. Which brought me into a totally new weight range bracket. And, I am still happy to say that I have kept it off (weighed in this AM)! I am on cloud nine over this.

This pic below is from Tuesday morning before taking my Aunt out into Boston to the Museum of Fine Arts. Now, I know it’s not my typical posting of pictures of myself, all face or family shots, but I am too proud of all this weight loss to not share this one.

Also, I love my belt. :)~

Ok, I do not like putting myself on the spot with body selfies. Also, cause I hate my body normally. But I do take them for myself, cause I like to scrutinize myself hah, but delete them almost immediately after showing my husband. BUT, Tuesday I felt amazing and snapped a shot that I loved and didn’t get rid of..so I am sharing it. I am super excited to be in another weight bracket you have no idea.

Hey all! So as you know, today the guys started on the kitchen demolition portion of the project. Right now they are gone; it’s been a long day for them. They got through taking down that wall which split the kitchen and dining room, removed the side of the faux ceiling of the dining room, and removed all the cabinetry and fixtures. Check it out below!

Probably my last pics of the kitchen till it is finished!!

View from where the fridge use to be!

View from dining room steps!

AlsoooooOoooo, I couldn’t help my curiosity this morning and stepped on the scale for an official personal weigh in. Habit. I don’t know how this happened, but I lost a lb this week! I am officially in a whole new weight bracket with these two recent loses! I cannot believe it! I am below another dreadful number I hated to see on my scale. Seriously, I am struck dumbfounded by this cause I honestly wasn’t trying. I was keeping tabs on not eating portions that were huge, but that was it. What a great surprise! Yes!!

I am so … excited! Excited to say goodbye to all the 1980s wooden cabinets, the peeling paint, the laminate countertops, the strange bathroom design, the wall that split one space, the built in table, the gross stucco wall covering, the old casement windows, the popcorn ceilings that are at different pitches, the crappy 1970s brown porcelain tile and heinous decor!

Join me in saying SEE YA LATER UGLY SPACE!!

YEAAAAAH! GOOOD RIDDANCE!!!

BEFORE: The kitchen view from the dining room entrance. I cannot wait to see all this wood disappear.The kitchen view from the existing doorway, which will no longer be there after the job. That wall where the Hopper print is will also be gone. Along with that weird built in table. My gawd the 80s were an ugly era.The kitchen view from the stove of the pantry and the doorway that goes out to the bathroom, tv room and the exterior back door. That entry way will be gone..and this view will be of the new fridge. Where my youngest daughter is standing will be an open space, no more wall!The kitchen view from the stove. This will change completely too. This will be where the stove will be, and the wall will be closed off and new cabinets in front.Oh this ugly bathroom. This bathroom WAS magenta when we moved in. And to coin my brother in law, it looked like a bathroom you’d find at a Sunoco station. This will completely change too..entrance shifts, and it’s getting gutted to the studs. YAY!!Bathroom View from door. Goodbye ugly bathroom flooring!Bathroom view from door. Goodbye ugly wall covering of stucco!Dining room view from entryway from living room. This wall and that weird closet are going GOODBYEEOOO! Yay!Dining room- this closet will be gutted, as with this whole part of the house, and will become cabinets with a service for the dining room.Today..the walls that will be torn down were decorated by us in homage of how we felt all these years. I couldn’t stand this wall!